1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control apparatus connected to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a network-connectable digital multifunctional peripheral machine (MFP) having a plurality of sheet feed cassettes storing a plurality of types of print sheets and having copy, printer, and facsimile functions. Some apparatuses of this type have various functions such as a document black/white reversal (negative/positive reversal) process, a trimming process to copy only part of a document, and a reduction layout process to print by reducing and compositing a plurality of documents on one print sheet.
A printer engine installed in the digital copying machine optimizes image forming conditions associated with printing for each print sheet type. In general, print sheet types are roughly classified into glossy paper, plain paper, thick paper, and transparent sheet. Even plain paper differs in grammage (weight per unit area) between manufacturers. A user sometimes uses special watermark-bearing sheets or sheets of a special color. Strictly speaking, there are many types of print sheets, and there are numerous image forming conditions depending on the number of print sheet types.
To optimize image formation, a digital copying machine manufacturer stores a print sheet DB including each print sheet manufacturer name in the memory of the digital copying machine. A user operates the operation panel of the digital copying machine, refers to the print sheet DB, and associates a print sheet type with a sheet feed cassette.
To print a desired document or image, the user of a client PC on the network selects the type of print sheets stored in the digital multifunctional peripheral and executes a printing process to print the document or image on the target print sheet.
Recently, demand has increased for an advanced image process to the printing function of the digital copying machine. Color appearance is one of the demands. This demand can generally be met by setting a color profile in the digital copying machine, and setting, in print data, command information representing the use of the color profile and command information designating the type of print sheet used for the color profile. However, some digital copying machines do not have a printing function using the color profile. The color profile is an ICC profile defined by the ICC (International Color Consortium).
To meet the above demands, there is known a technique of interposing, between a printing apparatus and a network, an independent control apparatus for executing functions not supported by the printing apparatus (e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-108113). That is, the control apparatus sets a color profile in accordance with a request from a user, uses the color profile to perform an image process for print data received from the network, and outputs print bitmap image data to the digital copying machine. The printer engine of the digital copying machine simply forms an image from the received bitmap data, satisfying the user request.
A client terminal on the network recognizes the control apparatus as a printer. The client terminal can instruct the control apparatus as to the color profile and print sheet type to set.
In many cases, one organization such as a company uses print sheets from a fixed manufacturer. As far as that manufacturer is concerned, “plain sheet” means “A4 long-grain alkaline sheet available from company xxx”. When a user designates printing from his client terminal, he may be confused if he has to designate “A4 long-grain alkaline sheet available from company xxx” or the like in selecting a print sheet. It is desirable if one can simply designate the intended sheet type by the phrase “A4 plain sheet”.
To meet this user need, the control apparatus desirably incorporates a print sheet DB, similar to the digital copying machine.
In this case, however, consistency between a print sheet DB held in the printing apparatus such as the digital copying machine and that held in the control apparatus is important.
For example, the client terminal refers to the DB of the control apparatus, designates “A4 plain sheet”, and prints while the digital copying machine is printing using the target print sheet “A4 long-grain alkaline sheet available from company xxx” and print sheets run short. If the print sheet run short, the operation panel of the digital copying machine displays a message that prompts the user to load “A4 long-grain alkaline sheets available from company xxx”. In some cases, it is desirable to transmit the same message to the client terminal and display it. In other cases, it is desirable to transmit the message “A4 plain sheets run short.” to the client terminal and display it. In the former case, the user of the print job-issuing client terminal loads print sheets in the digital copying machine. In the latter, the user of the print job-issuing client terminal contacts a person who loads print sheets in the digital copying machine.
A preprinted sheet prepared by printing a logotype on an A4-size plain sheet is sometimes registered with the user defining sheet name “logo-bearing sheet”. In this case, when sheets run short and “A4 sheets run short.” is displayed as the print sheet name, the user cannot determine whether A4 plain sheets or A4 preprinted sheets should be loaded. In this case, it is convenient if one can display a user defining sheet name and prompt the user to load target sheets when sheets run short.
In some cases, however, displaying a user defining sheet name after print sheets run short is confusing. For example, consider a situation in which a color profile for company A is set for sheet A, and “company A” is registered as a user defining sheet name. Further, a color profile for company B is set for the same sheet A, and “company B” is registered as a user defining sheet name. In this case, even if “sheets available from company A run short.” or “sheets available from company B run short.” is displayed after sheets run short, the user cannot determine what kind of sheets are to be loaded.
As described above, when a control apparatus is interposed between a network and an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine, an error message sent to a client terminal desirably complies with the user operation environment.